Impossible Choices
by The Old Bastard
Summary: When Ivo lifts his gun, Oliver Queen realizes that he must make a choice. A choice that will result in drastically different outcomes. Slado, with Olicity later on. Slow burn. Written because Slade deserved better, and Oliver needed some more pain. [ON HIATUS.]


**IMPOSSIBLE CHOICES**

* * *

"Time to choose, Oliver! Who lives... and who dies."

What? No. First Slade... not this. He can't be serious, he can't just... no, I won't let him, he can't do this!

"But pick quickly, because in thirty seconds I will shoot them both!"

He can't. I can't...

"You don't have to do this! You got what you came for; just take it and go!"

The look he gives me, so cold, so merciless. I know this isn't a joke. He points his gun towards Shado and I know it isn't some sick, twisted mind game. He's going to make me choose. But I can't choose.

"You freaking psychopath!"

His eyes glint with dark amusement, and I can almost see the ghost of a smile dancing beneath that psychotic look.

"History will be the judge of that. Five seconds."

I look between them, Sara and Shado. The hopelessness, the fear that they would not be chosen... I've never seen them this way. This island, this bloody _fucking_ island. It's broken all of us. This is what we've come to. I can't choose.

"Times up."

His takes aim, lifts him gun towards one of them. I can't even tell which anymore, my vision has gone sickeningly red. But I know that whoever it is, I can't let them die. I can't let this psycho kill them, not today, not when we've lost so much. The dead flash before my eyes - Yao Fei falling, shot by Fyres in cold blood. My own father, putting that gun to his head so I could survive.

Slade, blood dropping from his eyes as he told Shado how he truly felt. His last breath had been to tell her that he loved her.

"No, no!"

It didn't matter anymore. I ran blindly, putting myself in front of whoever he was aiming at. I can't see him anymore, can hardly hear him anymore. The world is nothing but a blur to me. Nothing but horrible, horrible pain, ripping what little soul I had left into tiny shards.

"I guess you've made your choice."

He lifts his gun, voice hard as stone...

"NO!"

I scream as the gun goes off, a single word escaping my bloodied lips. It tries to drown out the other noises, but fails - the sickening entry of the bullet, the soft thud of a slender body hitting the ground penetrates my ears.

My vision clears, the red mist finally departing. I look over, terrified, knowing who I've chosen but not wanting for the horrible reality to make itself known. But when I see the blond hair tangled in the leaves and broken branches, blood pooling beneath her head, I know that I have failed.

I fall next to her, wanting only to share in her fate. I've let her die twice. I let her go.

I killed Sara.

I chose.

* * *

Forgotten in the hallway of the derelict submarine, Slade Wilson opens his eyes. His throat is dry; something wet and sticky coats him just under the eyes. Every muscle aches horribly, yet he feels stronger. His vision sharper, his hearing impeccable, the scents around him multiplied ten fold. He felt as though he could rip through solid steel. However, despite this new, terrible power coursing through him, he still couldn't help but focus on the one thing that was important to him.

The only person that mattered now.

"Shado... SHADO!"

What happened next was a blur for Slade - one moment he was still in the sub, climbing up the ladder hard enough to dent the bars underneath his boot, the next he was sprinting through the forest, using his new found powers to track where Oliver and Shado had been taken.

He arrived just in time, letting the rage he felt overtake him, _strengthen him._ They came at him one by one, and he crushed them, broke them until they were nothing. Nothing could stop his onslaught until the very last of them fell. The ex-ASIS agent didn't even blink.

Silently, he looked towards his friends. Shado, looking at him with those wide, beautiful eyes... and Oliver, silently weeping over the body of the girl they'd taken with them. _Sara,_ he thought _._ He felt for his friend, but right now, only one person mattered.

"Shado..." Slade said, walking to the woman he loved with soft steps. The gut wrenching feeling that'd been building in his chest slowly dissipated, releasing into something happier, even hopeful. When he'd been running, all he'd been able to focus on was whether or not she'd been dead, whether she was the one with the bullet in the back of her skull. Without saying a word, he pulled the slender woman into a tight embrace, careful not to hurt her but powerful enough to convey what he was feeling, a feeling that only increased when he felt warm arms wrap behind his back, squeezing with the same intensity.

"We... we thought you had died, Slade. How did you survi-"

"The Mirikuru. Fixed me up right, I suppose... Oliver...?" Slade asked, cutting the woman off as he released her, albeit with reluctance, in order to properly look at his friend. Shado swallowed, something obviously bothering her.

"Ivo... he forced Oliver to chose. He chose me." Her voice was tight and quiet, guilt dripping from her every word.

Slade's eyes widened. The man was more than a friend now- no, he was a brother. A brother for life. He'd chosen to save the woman he loved over the girl Oliver had already lost. Slade gently got up, taking a few steps in order to kneel by his brother.

Quiet sobs wracked Oliver's body, and for once Slade didn't think about the weakness Oliver was displaying. He understood this pain, and it wasn't one born from weakness. He put his hand on Oliver's back.

"Kid, we gotta go. Ivo will be comin' back soon, no doubt, and we don't want to be here when he does."

Oliver didn't shrug him off, only look at his friend with bloodshot eyes, so filled with such pain and despair that Slade almost looked away. He knew that had happened... Oliver wasn't going to be the same anymore. This had, if not broken him, then place a scar on him that could never be healed.

"I'm not leaving her." His voice was rough, laced with a rage buried underneath the sadness. Slade nodded, staying by his friend as Shado walked next to them. Gently, Oliver wrapped his arms under Sara, lifting her up as if it were nothing. Slowly, the trio began to trudge the opposite way. Not towards the plane, or the cave, but towards the graves. Oliver led them, tears still streaming down his face. On either side of him stood Slade and Shado - if one thing was certain, they weren't letting Oliver get through this alone.

* * *

"Sara Lance... was my friend. She was... she was... oh god, I can't do this." Oliver said, unable to continue the eulogy. They'd buried Sara that night, digging a shallow grave, piling dirt and rocks atop it as they'd done for the others. It was morning now, and the three were preforming last rights for the fallen. As Oliver broke down, Shado came and hugged him from the side. Slade even putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. They understood what this meant to the young man - Sara was his last lifeline to his former life. To bury her... it must have been devastating.

"It's alright kid... Ivo is going to pay for what he's done." Slade growled, his hate for the man growing as he watched his brother carry the burden of this pain.

"He... he's going to burn for this. I'm gonna end him." It was the only response Oliver could give, all his pain and rage and loathing boiling to the surface. He would end Ivo, relish in the sight of the man choking on his own blood, an arrow through his neck. A grisly smile formed on his lips as he pictured it.

"Come on, Oliver, we should get back to the plane and prepare." Shado said, releasing Oliver from her grasp and backing away. She could feel this rage, this great hate boiling inside him, and it was unnerving. Understandable, but unnerving all the same.

Without a word, Oliver began to move towards their makeshift home, the area now burning into his mind as if it were the last safe haven in the world. Slade and Shado shot a look at each other before heading after him, conveying an unspoken message.

 _We have to make sure he doesn't go after Ivo alone._

* * *

 _Hey, everybody! So this is my first Arrow fic, and I honestly have no idea if it's good or bad. I've been wanting to write a story about this for a while now, as the ending with Slade greatly irked me. Seriously, they make you feel for the character so much, I thought that he deserved a happier ending. Oliver, on the other hand, is going to go through hell over this. Please note that I don't plan no making this a 'role reversal' where Oliver becomes a villain, but rather just an alternate set of events that make Oliver Queen into a much darker version of the Arrow, while at the same time giving Slade the outcome he deserved._

 _Please note that this will eventually become Slado and Olicity, but will probably have a slow progression towards them. I have no idea how long I'll make this fic, or when I'll update next, but I imagine it'll go on for quite some time._

 _Sorry for the short chapter, by the way. I promise that future chapters will be an upwards of 2500 words or more. Probably more._

 _Cheers,_

 _Thaddeus J. Red_


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